...already gerrmandered to the hilt?

I live just outside austin
my district now runs from kayy (just outside houston ) to austin. heres a map of yexas districts. look at district 5

My district 15 stretches from the Rio Grande River up to San Antonio and New Braunfels. Monica de la Cruz became the first Republican and woman to ever win the district. But the district has been so contorted over the years, it's almost meaningless.

https://russblib.blogspot.com

There is NO LONGER a "United States of America"...

Preesident Obama's famous speech simply no longerr applies to the current reality. For racist whites in America, the victory of President Obama was seen as an existential threat and loss of hegemony that had to be addressed more forcibly than anythinig since Gettysburg.

The current reality is our politicians are so wrapped up in gerry-mandering and purity-testing candidates that the actual act of GOVERNING is a distraction and the concept of COMPROMISE to move towards a better common future is dead.

Fuck it. Just declare the Red states what they are - The Neo-Confederate States of America, kick the out of the United States of America and their exit price is a renunciation of their share of the nation's nuclear arsenal. They can fuck right off into theocratic ruin while the rest of us can get down to the task of fixing our Supreme Court, our co-equal branches of government and our electoral system. We will also need a newly reevised Constitution but working with these dumbass fuckers from MAGA areas is a waste of time.

They don't want anything - except a continued gravy train of Blue State money to fund their failing state and local areas. Fuck 'em. I want out, I want them gone and I plan to show them the EXACT SAME level of compassion and empathy they are currently showing immigrants and minority groups today - FUCKING ZERO. They can all die and rot in their streets for all I care...after we dissolve this broken union their problems are their own and their fate is sealed.

variety of legitimate reasons!

So you leave them to an even more awful fate?

I live in a big, blue city in a more Blue State area, but I'm concerned for others elsewhere - esp lower income, women, POCs, elders in those States of Democrats, Democratic leanjngs.

relocation assistance to those who want to move OUT of the Red States, and to those who want to move OUT of the Blue States. That, in itself, makes it unworkable. But you can't split the country without allowing and helping people move to where they want to be. I've been saying for years I wish to holy hell they'd just secede and start their own country. But there are so many problems and issues to work out, and the one thing maga types aren't known for is patience enough to work out equitable solutions. And, honestly, at this point, I don't think WE'RE than patient either! I know I, for one, want them gone... I don't even care how. No, scratch that... I actually want them to move to some other country where they can live their bubbled religious lives and leave the rest of us alone. You'd think by now they'd realize they ain't gonna be raptured... or maybe they got "left behind" and start to make tracks to move someplace that better fit them than the country and ideals the Founders gave them.

The best we can do is get our country back as flawed as it, and try to reduce the power they hold; so at least it effects less of us!
Sort of since ginning up the religious right since Reagan's time aI thknk

The religious right ran around for 40 years threatening Roe and campaigning and donating and consolidating power, recruiting money and power and getting things like $$$ = speech, women = chattle and immigrants = aliens into the venacular.

To SLOW that march now would take 80 years of the same level of pushback...first to slow the march, then to stop it and finally to reverse it back to where we were in 1973!

That would be nearing the end of the lifespan of my children and probably my grandchildren (should I be lucky enough to have any)...

We tremble and quake whenever the goddamn 2nd amendment gets wavied around yet we cower and hide when the 1st amendement is bastardized and attacked relentlessly?

We have accepted a stacked Supreme Court - illegally packed with ideologues and liars.
We have passively accepted gerrymandering that makes every Republican vote have the same heft as 2 to 2.5 Democratic votes.
We have watched our mothers, daughters, sisters and nieces be stripped of autonomy and agency for their own bodies.

In short, we are now facing the fruits of 45 years of relentless attacks that have become the very definition of the immovable object. I do not believe this can be reversed for exactly that reason - the time it would take to do so in no longer measured in timescales that people can abide. A human lifetime is at best an average of 80 years. It will take more than that to get back to baseline now. That does not inspire people to action. But the horrors of the overreach in the current GOP hatred IS enough to motivate, painful enough to move people into action.

The status quo cannot hold for long. The GOP wishes to make it WORSE, which can only accelerate the inevitable - a partitioning of the union and a split of the nation. It is coming. It NEVER was fully healed after 1865. The original sin of this nation is still rending it in two as we approach the 250 year mark that will become the marker of the end of the First Republic, the partitioning of the continent and the dawn of the Second Republic.

The only problem I see with splitting the U.S. (besides the need to move people to their desired "sides&quot is that the wingnuts are too inherently violent. WE know the laws and rules they would implement in their country would make it unliveable, even for the true believers (unless we're talking about tech bros, etc). People would be starving in the masses... there would be no medical care available for them, no jobs worth doing and paying anything. They're likely to end up slaves to the $$$ classes, without the care and feeding of such that might have gone in the past. Do you think they'll turn against their masters to make things better for themselves, or still blame the other half of the country, tho we have nothing to do with them anymore? I believe they'll STILL be blaming us for everything to their last dying breath. And, as such, they will make war. And, unfortunately, I don't believe the U.S. would have the fortitude to strip the military bases in Redland before turning loose the poor dears. So, they'll have all the military bases to raid and start their Civil War 2.0 (or maybe 3.0 by that time). One of my dearest friends and I have gone over these scenarios time after time over the last 5 years. The only thing I can see is to move them off the land of America completely, and put them where their ideology fits best. They can become part of some other country's resistance. Because like those I've started reading who immigrated to Russia, they're not real happy over there. These people are never going to be happy ANYWHERE, because to achieve that, you have to like, admire, and be happy with yourself. And the one thing ALL these people have in common is that hate themselves, first and foremost. Get them out of the country, move our resources and people who are wanting and willing to do the work to make the land fertile and productive once again into the areas. And if anyone tries to come back in, deport them back to their adopted country immediately.

I do believe in your timelines... only one small change I'd make. The religious nuts have been at this for far more than 40 years. They've been doing this since the Church of God split into two factions... mainstream and evangelical nut cases. We're talking close to hundred years they've been on the move to make this country a theocracy of their own design. Every time the world didn't end when they predicted it, they doubled down because they believed the situation wasn't right for christ to return, so they'd have to make sure it was for the next time. People like this don't change their beliefs. They're too ingrained, generation through generation through generation. IMO, they're actually worse than the Islamists that good Muslims have to deal with. And they will become just as deadly as the Islamists, I thoroughly believe.

Territorial continuity is unlikely.
Political affiliation and alliances may be necessary for people like myself - in a Blue city, stuck in the middle of Red State deserts in all directions.

Or I may have to make a choice - live under the yoke of oppression and theocratic dictatorship or uproot myself and my family to live in a moderate modern state or area. The decision is already made for me. I am leaving as soon as it becomes feasible or necessary. I will leave everything behind and start over. This will sadly include family members who have joined the opposing cult. I won't miss them.

Divorce and dissolution are never easy and always hurt everyone unequally. There is just no legal or legitimate path to the kind of reforms that would be needed to fix the currently destroyed state of the American government, legal system or its economy as it sits today. The tectonic plates have been rubbing for a long, long time. The quake is imminent.

is that they fight most violently when being extracted from their hosts..

Reminds me of the time Trump demanded Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger "find 11,780 votes" to overturn the state's election results. That was a crime as well.

California congressional districts are drawn by an independent commission mandated by their constitution - and I don't think any of their guidelines for mid-decade redistricting include "Texas is doing it".

Plus - while there's no easy way to draw TX with a gain of five red seats for next year (though two would be easy)... it's even harder in CA given the fact that they could lose four or even five seats in the next reapportionment (while TX picks up three or four).

OH is actually required to redistrict for next year... few other states have an easy path to "play at that game". Our path to victory involves changing votes... not redrawing lines.

To keep up with the national average, they would actually have to grow almost four times as fast (the population of the US grew by ~3.3 million)

And to expand on what I said before - California doesn't draw their congressional districts through the state legislature. The constitution was amended to put the line drawing in the hands of a commission... and three of the five mandated republicans must vote in favor in order to change the lines.

While we do have sizable-enough majorities in the state legislature to propose an amendment (CA goes through them like tissues)... it would still have to go for a popular vote. So to "play that game" Newsome would have to have the legislature amend the constitution, and hold a special election to put it to the voters. All when CA is already pretty solidly blue

Plus there are a couple Districts that were originally close (R) ones (I know the 45th & 47th, the latter including red areas like Huntington Beach), where (D)s flipped the seat.

And since CA is a trifecta with a super-majority, they can change the law if they want. Just have to see what Newsom has in mind.

And what you describe (in your edit) is exactly what TX is doing now - calling a special session to dick around with their lines.

California is shrinking in population as a proportion of the nation and is likely to lose multiple seats in the next reapportionment.

Plus there are a couple Districts that were originally close (R) ones (I know the 45th & 47th, the latter including red areas like Huntington Beach), where (D)s flipped the seat.

That isn't a good thing as a measure of how easy it would be to draw new blue seats. It's actually the opposite. There are only two red seats in CA where republicans won by fewer than ten points... but eight blue districts that fit that bucket (four of which were closer than three points). We already hold a 43-9 advantage... there just isn't room to pick up much more.

And what you describe (in your edit) is exactly what TX is doing now - calling a special session to dick around with their lines.

Which is irresponsible and wrong-headed... but not surprising. More importantly - it's far easier than amending even CA's constitution... and OH is easier than either of them.

and then re-redrawing, would be NY. I think NY lost 5 or 6 (D) seats when they did their 2020 redistricting, ending up having instances of 2 (D)s suddenly running against each other for a new "combined" seat (Nadler vs Maloney was one example). They eventually tweaked it in 2024 and recovered a couple (D)s, but it seems the damage was done.

Alternately, FL had done like TX and managed to manufacture ~5 new (R) seats.

I think the overarching issue is the idea of "gerrymandering" and the apparent SCOTUS dipping and dodging around it (since "elections" are generally handled by the states).

I found an interesting discussion about the recent realignments here and the problems that we as (D)s face - How Gerrymandering Tilts the 2024 Race for the House

and what was noted was this -